First Day in Auckland
✒️ Written by: James
We finally arrived at our hotel in Auckland at ~20:30 feeling all too exhausted. But it was nice to know that all the flying was behind us (for now) and that we had somewhere to call home for a few nights.
We jumped out of bed the next morning at ~06:30 and popped down to a little café at the bottom of the road before heading into town. After a cloudy UK and a cold, foggy China, the bright heat of summer in Auckland was fantastic! The smells and the buzz of the city were so stimulating.
Covered in sunscreen, we ambled our way down to the waterfront and, on curious impulse, found our way into the New Zealand Maritime Museum. It was essentially broken up into 4 sections: Maori boat culture, European settlers and immigration, yacht building/racing, and local ecology and wildlife conservation. My personal favourite was the Maori section, going over their various canoe (waka) and seafearing boat designs and cultural connections. I wouldn't be surprised if the idea for Disney's Moana was hatched in this museum. The designs of the boats and the character of the Ocean and of Maui himself were fished straight up from Maori culture it turns out.
As per Te Ara - the encyclopedia of New Zealand:
Around 1300 CE, Polynesian settlers used subtropical weather systems to navigate their way to New Zealand. These migrants were the ancestors of New Zealand’s Māori people.
There were lots of models which I loved; I suppose model ship building extends to canoes. I didn't see any in bottles though.
After leaving the museum we carried on walking west down the coast, daydreaming about a life of affluent luxury as we walked past all the expensive boats and yachts glittering in the sunlight. Turning around at Point Erin Park, we walked the 3km back to the city centre.
Parched and all too sober from our weary wharf walking, we popped into Good George North Wharf - a nice bar stroke restaurant. I had a plum cider and Abbie had a glass of white wine and we jointly attacked a bowl of chips.
We ended the day at Mozzarella & Co. over the road from ibis Budget, where we were staying. Abbie had the tagliatelle cacio e pepe which was tossed in a large cheese wheel right next to our table! I had a squid ink vongole dish. And major food envy. It wasn't delicious, but it was good to try something new.
And so ended our first day - a good start to the trip as a whole!
